Tobaccos Cornell & Diehl - Bright Virginia Ribbon

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3046)	2017-01-20		Very Mild	None Detected	Mild	Very Pleasant

This thin cut bright Virginia ribbon burns cooler than many others of this cut, and offers some grass/hay, tart lemon and floral notes, and a very mild tart and tangy citrus. The sugar aspect is just a little more obvious than citrus. Here and there, I noticed a subtle drop or two of honey. The strength is very mild, while the taste is mild. Barely has any nicotine. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has a minute rough edge. Burns slightly fast, cool and clean with a very consistent flavor, though there's little depth to it. Virtually leaves no moisture in the bowl, and hardly requires a relight. Has a pleasant, very short lived after taste, and light room note. An easy going all day, monochromatic work and play smoke that also makes a decent mixer. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks

14 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	fr_tom (393)	2018-06-19		Mild	None Detected	Mild	Pleasant

The cut is a long(ish) medium ribbon. The pouch note is hay and a slight sweet. Moisture level is on the dry side of what I consider perfect. I smoked it as delivered and packed it a little firmly.

Smoked, this is pleasant and does not challenge with nuance. It is your basic bright Virginia and has a sweet grassy flavor with a side of citrus. The flavor is consistent, and it burns a little quickly. I did not have issues with tongue bite or goop. The tobacco lends itself to reloading the same pipe for another round, and it could be a great all-day smoke for someone who likes Virginias.

This one is easy to recommend, but it will impress you with consistency and not with complexity. I have enjoyed it. I am confident it would make a great blending tobacco, but I have never tried using it that way. it is a solid three for me.

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	pylet2000 (33)	2016-10-17		Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Since I'm the first to review this, I'll be a little more thorough.

In short, a nice straight Virginia for smoking as-is or blending. All your favorite characteristics for a light Virginia are present: naturally sweet, slightly grassy, slightly hay-like, easy light flavor. Like any straight Virginia, the flavor is straight-ahead and mono-dimensional. Also like any other straight Virginia, it requires proper cadence to prevent burning hot / biting. Like most un-aged Virginias, it has the slightly rough edges of youth. I'd imagine aging this would do very nice things. Not that it's harsh when fresh, but not the exceptional smoothness / complexity of well aged Virginia either.

In the bulk bag, it's just a little damp which can make relights more frequent if you're trying to not over-puff. Dry it a little, and this problem goes away. The ribbons are rather fine cut, and golden in color. Aroma is very mild, typical of Virginia's.

All in all, it serves my intent rather well: a straight ahead blending tobacco to lighten / sweeten any blend without adding tons of character of it's own. I can even smoke it on it's own like I would a VaPer or Virginia flake, although it's just a touch thin for a frequent stand-alone smoke.

Pipe Used: Dedicated Virginia cob

Age When Smoked: fresh from bulk bag

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2081)	2018-02-05		Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Cornell & Diehl - Bright Virginia Ribbon.

The ribbon cut mixture includes one or two coarser pieces but the majority of the ribbons are mid-sized. On the lower side of things it has room to be a bit moister; it's not 'dry', but I'd prefer it to have more hydration.

The smoke has quite a mellow character. The Virginia citrus and grass, the sharper flavours, are a little constrained by the lighter hay, slightly bready, and sweet side of the smoke. To be negative, it burns warm; alas, this would be a paramount reason to use it for blending, not straight-smoking. As well as the heat it tends to burn quickly, too.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: pleasant.

The flavour's top-notch, but the physical attributes let it down: heat and speed. So, I'll only somewhat recommend it:

Two stars.

Pipe Used: Peterson Christmas 2014 #03

Age When Smoked: One month

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	GabrielCRT (115)	2017-11-29		Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

I enjoy all sorts of fine Virginias including those from Gawith, Dunhill, Pease, Esoterica, and Mac Baren. I also like many C&D Virginias like Opening Night and Carolina Red Flake. This one is in another category. It's charmingly simple. The tin note is wonderful nothing but sweet tobacco and hay. It smokes well with a good sugar content, not too much. Lots of hay, a little grassy, and a hint of citrus. Some bready notes occasionly and I get some spice through the nose. The room note is very pleasant with a fresh baked bread aroma. No tongue bite or heat and easily burns to nothing but ash. This makes a great blender with Perique, Izmir, or Burley but I love smoking it on it's own. This is multiple pound worthy if you enjoy bright Virginia tobacco.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jorge Soler (203)	2017-06-26		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

This ribbon cut gold Virginia leaf (bright Virginia) exhibits the same standard properties of any Virginia tobacco you could expect in this category, that is, sweetness with a citrusy background, earthy and hay undertones, grassy, nutty, etc. Exhibiting somewhat similar properties, I believe there is more depth and background flavour in its cousin counterpart (Red Virginia Ribbon), but this brighter version is no mean feat either. This tobacco wants to be sipped and will develop quite nicely as you progress with your smoke. I believe there is plenty of blending potential here and surely enough it will benefit from the addition of perique, but in its own right, I find it to be quite good never the less. Not as complex as other tobaccos that will require all of your attention, this bright leaf might as well be used as an everyday blend that will fit quite nicely in your rotation. This baccy is gonna get 4 stars.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Rustedrailsmokes (293)	2019-06-08		Mild	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I bought a pound to use as a blending tobacco but decided to try it on its own and I'm glad I did.

From the bag, it is a little drier than I'd like. The tin note almost reminded me of cut grass/hay and was very pleasant. The thin ribbons are easy to pack in any pipe. Easy to light and keep lit.

As you'd expect from the mixture, it is very consistent tasting through the bowl. A little sweetness, a little citrus, but a solid smoke from light down to the gray ash at the bottom of the bowl.

The nicotine strength seems very light. my wife thought the room note was a little towards cigarette (she's a cig smoker). No tongue bite unless you really push it when it will burn hot.

I've also combined this with 10% perique get a great easy VaPer. Going to run that combo through the noodle press to see how it marries as a crumble cake.

Pipe Used: various

Age When Smoked: fresh from bag

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Steerpike (156)	2023-05-19		Mild	None Detected	Very Mild	Pleasant

I bought this to have a dabble in blending, and obviously had to give it a try to appreciate what I've got.

The medium fine bright ribbon cut tobacco arrived very dry indeed - somewhat crispy. I've not tried hydrating it yet.

The aroma in the bag is of hay and dry grass in summer, and this is the leading flavour in the smoke, with a subtle shortbread sweetness in the background. I don't get much in the way of citrus, but I do find that it bites if puffed. Given the ribbon cut and dryness, it lights easily and burns evenly and completely.

My preferred preparation of pure Virginia for smoking is flake or plug, so I'll probably be using this exclusively in blends.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	craig61a (22)	2020-11-19		Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Pleasant Virginia flavor, nice sweetness and citrus flavor. No bite, has a nice lemon note. Bought for blending, but it's not bad on it's own. It arrived on the dry side, but not too dry. Perfect humidity to load and go. I haven't used it in a blend yet, but I think it would tend to lighten and open up a blend that had a bit of a heavier flavor. Outstanding tobacco for what it is... just a plain old Virginia.

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: SP

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	TallPuffO'Burley (633)	2020-07-24		Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

I bought this specifically for blending purposes and it fit this role better than I expected. My expectations for any C&D Virginia is that it will be less sweet than I prefer, but this one was very sweet and delivered exactly the hay and citrus notes that I was looking for as a blending ingredient. It also comes dry (perfect for me) and the cut was ideal for blending IMO.

This is kind of tough to rate this if you try to be objective or subjective as there are two ways of looking at this tobacco: one, as a blending tobacco, and two, as a straight Virginia.

As a straight Virginia, this is actually better than more than a few tinned Virginia products from other blenders, but still does not rise to the level of a four star Virginia IMO; However, I would not hesitate to give it three stars as I did enjoy smoking this straight.

As a blender, this may rise to the level of four stars for most as mentioned above it has what you want for blending. I recently finished the last jar off adding it to some heavier lat blends to make them more palatable for the hot months of summer. In fact, every time I added this to any blend it seemed to make said blend taste better to me.

So does it rate four stars because of its blending capabilities? I don't know, but I don't think it should as someone may find much better blending results using four star straight Virginias for the purpose of blending. Fortunately I have more of this and I think I may just have to pop one of my favorite Virginias just for blending purposes and see for myself. For now, I will leave this at three stars and perhaps, pick up another 8 ounces for the cellar.

Age When Smoked: 2 yrs 7 months

Purchased From: probably SP

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Knightsmoker (218)	2020-04-11		Mild	None Detected	Mild	Tolerable

Bright VA Ribbon has a jar note after 6 months that is deeply earthy, somewhat sweet, with a very light note of hay. Mine seems just a little darker in color than what is pictured here but that could be the lighting used. The smoke itself is very earthy for a bright VA, enough so if I was not told it was a straight VA I would suspect that some burley was used. Following this is the sweetness that I like in brights with a light hay note and only a very light note of citrus that remains in the background throughout. The flavor profile does not change. What you start with is all that you will get so it is far from complex. Smoked at a normal pace there is no chance of bite but if you push this it will burn hot. The nic hit is right at the top of the mild mark. The room note was too cigarette like for me to enjoy and it left a strong lingering cigarette note in the bowl between cleanings. Somewhat recommended as it is. I did not use this as a mixer as it lacked the fuller hay/grass and citrus that I was looking for in a bright VA for this purpose. Although it is sweet as mild as it is I doubt that aging will help this one. Still I did finish my 2 oz sample of this one and if I had more I would finish that too but I see no reason to revisit it.

Age When Smoked: 6 months

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stefanos (222)	2019-07-02		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Bright Virginia Ribbon, is just what it says. It’s a nice bright thin ribbon with mild honeyed sweetness, hay aromas and it smokes nicely. Actually, very tasty! Strength is mild and it does not produce tongue bite to me. It can be smoked perfectly well on its own though it smokes quick. It can become a little ashy towards the end but I find it a perfectly good tobacco especially for those who like to inhale. Of course, it can be used as blending material and as such it is a four-star tobacco.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JaWiBr (559)	2023-01-06		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Jar note of lemon grass, spices, and mild stewed fruit. Tobacco looks like it was pressed, sliced and mostly rubbed out. a few chunks can be rubbed down further. The yellowish orange-red tobacco has a good moisture content, some may prefer to dry it a bit. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is mild to medium and very consistent, with notes of wood, spice, sweet bread, mild grass, mild earth, mildly floral, slightly bitter, orange peel, slightly dry, lemon zest, a tangy sweet citrus background note, and a peppery retro. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Pipe Used: Peterson Bard Rusticated 221 Fishtail

Age When Smoked: 5 years

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	ATW (110)	2021-03-21		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

While I've become very fond of C&D Red Virginia Ribbon, This Bright Virginia will take a bit to get use to, even though it has proven to be very good. The description of Old Belt virigina's seems misleading due to an interview a few years back that stated their Bright VA comes from Canada.

The bag aroma is sweet, citrus, and oats. It doesn't have hardly any moisture but just enough to keep it from turning to dust. From beginning to end, it smokes consistently with a lot of sweetness, bread, and oats, honey, and a good amount of citrus. This is pretty much the same as Virginia Flake from C&D but it has more rough edges, burns a little hotter and can be a bit bitey.

Since honey is one of the flavors I can pick out, I decided to do a light honey and distilled water ( 4 tbsp of honey to 4 oz of water) casing to re-hydrate and see if it improves the roughness and it did help, but some pressing and aging should help with the rest of the roughness and mature the bite down quite a bit.

Over all this is a nice VA with a lot of potential to be greater. Its similar to Mac Baren VA's but stronger in body and flavor.

Obviously excellent for blending but with time, This will be really good smoked straight.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	cm1648 (108)	2020-03-04		Very Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Unlike my experience with C&D's Red Virginia Ribbon, Bright Virginia carries more nuance when smoked alone. The hay notes drive the bus but hints and notes of caramel, vanilla, and table sugar are always in play. A slight creaminess would develop as the bowl continued as well. Leaves minimal moisture and a nice room note. A great blend on its own right and as a blender.3/5 stars

Pipe Used: corn cobs, peterson kildare,

Age When Smoked: 0-1 months

Purchased From: Smokingpipes

Nobody has rated this review yet.